The Met’s storm over gay rights, politics and Putin

Photo: The Metropolitan Opera

Police in Russia have seized a painting depicting the country's president Vladimir Putin in women's underwear from an art gallery in St Petersburg.

Earlier this month an interviewer asked Vladimir Putin about Russia’s draconian crackdown on the rights of gays and lesbians, who have suffered violent reprisals since the passage of a discriminatory law this May. Putin defended the law, but insisted he had no problems with gay people – and chose a surprising example to prove it. “They say that Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a homosexual,” the Russian president said. “Truth be told, we don’t love him because of that, but he was a great musician, and we all love his music. So what?”
It’s a tiny comfort to hear that the composer of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker doesn’t meet with presidential condemnation. But Tchaikovsky – who wrote to his brother about his “cursed buggermania”, and who fell so in love with his own nephew that he dedicated his aching 6th Symphony to him – has become, in his own way, a victim of Russia’s new suppressions. A biopic of Tchaikovsky’s life that’s currently in production presents the composer as a heartbroken straight man. According to a reporter for Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, an earlier draft of the screenplay acknowledged his love for men, but the film’s screenwriter now says that “only philistines” believe the overwhelming evidence of Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality.
And in New York, Tchaikovsky is at the centre of another controversy. On 23 September, the Metropolitan Opera launches its new season with a gala premiere of Eugene Onegin, the composer’s greatest opera. Opera companies plan their schedules years in advance, of course, but now the Met finds itself mounting a production by a gay Russian composer, featuring two noted Putin supporters. Anna Netrebko, the soprano singing Tatiana, endorsed Putin’s return to the presidency last year; Valery Gergiev, who’ll be conducting, is an even bigger Putin fan.
A chorus of disapproval
A storm has arisen, and more than 7,500 people have signed an online petition calling on the Met to dedicate its opening night gala of Eugene Onegin to the cause of LGBT rights. The petition hasn’t succeeded, but it’s had an impact all the same. Netrebko, who is headlining her third consecutive Met opening night (and who can count Putin as a fan), posted this mild but welcome note on Facebook: “As an artist, it is my great joy to collaborate with all of my wonderful colleagues – regardless of their race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. I have never and will never discriminate against anyone.”
But Gergiev has kept quieter. The conductor is a committed Putinite; he speaks of the president as a new Peter the Great, and his relationship with him made it possible to build the massive new Mariinsky Theater in St Petersburg that opened this year. Gergiev, who is now the richest musician in Russia of any genre, is not retiring about his patriotism. He played a concert to celebrate Russia’s brutal military campaign in South Ossetia. He spoke in favour of the decision to imprison Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist rock band. This May Putin presented him with a recently revived Soviet-era prize, the Hero of Labour award; and he is also an ‘ambassador’ for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, which are facing concerted protests.
Should artists be held responsible for their governments’ actions? It’d be absurd for every American singer or painter to have to answer for their country’s NSA spying program or gun laws. Nor should Chinese artists have to speak out in favour of Tibetan rights before they get a hearing abroad. Yet art is not some pure territory uninfected by ideology, and some artists, due to both their personal activities and their artistic inclinations, deserve special scrutiny. Gergiev is a tireless advocate of the Russian repertory: at the Met alone he has led revelatory performances of Prokofiev’s War and Peace and The Gambler, which had never been heard in New York before. Still, I’m glad that Gergiev’s intimacy with the Putin government is getting more attention. We shouldn’t allow his artistic gifts to excuse his political sympathies any more than we do with Wilhelm Furtwängler, the Nazi who was probably the greatest Wagner conductor ever.
Mission impossible?
A thornier question remains, though. What should the Met do? What responsibilities does the Met, as an arts organization, have to global gay rights and to the political realm more generally? In rejecting the online petition, which garnered the signatures of several major figures at the Met, the house’s general manager Peter Gelb deployed a ‘some-of-my-best-friends-are-gay’ defence to sidestep any awkwardness. “The Met is proud of its history as a creative base for LGBT singers, conductors, directors, designers, and choreographers,” the statement said. “But since our mission is artistic, it is not appropriate for our performances to be used by us for political purposes, no matter how noble or right the cause.”
But an artistic mission has never precluded political engagement. Quite the opposite: arts organisations get involved with politics all the time, and so they should. Nobody thought it was inappropriate when museums worldwide agitated for the freedom of Ai Weiwei, the imprisoned Chinese artist, in 2011; Tate Modern in London even wrote ‘RELEASE AI WEIWEI’ in giant letters on its façade. The Schaubühne in Berlin, perhaps the most important theatre in Europe today, produces plays alongside an intelligent and aggressive public lecture series called Streitraum, or ‘conflict room’, in which artists and scholars regularly condemn the Merkel government’s economic and political policies. Several opera companies, notably the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and De Nederlandse Opera in Amsterdam, publish magazines that engage with political events; when the Munich house mounted a production of Boris Godunov this spring, it used the occasion to speak out in support of Pussy Riot. (All of these institutions, I’d add, receive government funding.)
The Met could take any of these routes. It could also devote the intermission features of its highly popular HD broadcasts or radio simulcasts to a discussion of Russia’s gay crackdown. Yet the Met has no artistic director who can lead the house towards political engagement, and the American model of arts funding – which leaves institutions dependent on ultra-wealthy benefactors who may not relish a political fight – means change is unlikely.
There is, though, one salutary effect of the brouhaha around the Met’s Onegin: at least it has called public attention to the homosexuality of Tchaikovsky, who like so many great Russian cultural figures – Nikolai Gogol and Sergei Diaghilev come to mind – would face arrest or worse in contemporary Moscow or St Petersburg. His love and longing cannot be erased from his music; it’s right there, fundamental to the work. One person who understood that was Anthony Minghella, the late British director whose thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley utilises Eugene Onegin in a key scene. Matt Damon’s conman Ripley, after killing his beloved Dickie, played by Jude Law, goes to see Onegin at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome. And as Tchaikovsky’s music swells, and two male singers stare at each other in passion and anger, the camera cuts to Ripley with tears streaming down his face.
If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

Cocaine 'rapidly changes the brain'

 

 

 The researchers looked for tiny protrusions from brain cells called dendritic spines

• Brains may be wired for addiction
• Cocaine kills brain's 'pleasure' cells
• Cocaine users' brains 'different'

Taking cocaine can change the structure of the brain within hours in what could be the first steps of drug addiction, according to US researchers.

Animal tests, reported in the journal Nature Neuroscience, showed new structures linked to learning and memory began to grow soon after the drug was taken.
Mice with the most brain changes showed a greater preference for cocaine.
Experts described it as the brain "learning addiction".
The team at University of California, Berkeley and UC San Francisco looked for tiny protrusions from brain cells called dendritic spines. They are heavily implicated in memory formation.
Cocaine hunting The place or environment that drugs are taken plays an important role in addiction.

This study gives us a solid understanding of how addiction occurs - it shows us how addiction is learned by the brain”

Dr Gerome Breen Institute of Psychiatry

In the experiments, the mice were allowed to explore freely two very different chambers - each with a different smell and surface texture.

Once they had picked a favourite they were injected with cocaine in the other chamber.
A type of laser microscopy was used to look inside the brains of living mice to hunt for the dendritic spines.
More new spines were produced when the mice were injected with cocaine than with water, suggesting new memories being formed around drug use.
The difference could be detected two hours after the first dose.
Researcher Linda Wilbrecht, assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience at UC Berkeley, said: "Our images provide clear evidence that cocaine induces rapid gains in new spines, and the more spines the mice gain, the more they show they learned about the drug.
"This gives us a possible mechanism for how drug use fuels further drug-seeking behaviour.
"These drug-induced changes in the brain may explain how drug-related cues come to dominate decision making in a human drug user."
Commenting on the research, Dr Gerome Breen, from the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, told the BBC: "Dendritic spine development is particularly important in learning and memory.
"This study gives us a solid understanding of how addiction occurs - it shows us how addiction is learned by the brain.
"But it is not immediately apparent how useful this would be in developing a therapy."

Russia's Arctic: Mission to protect wildlife

Russia is planning huge oil and gas developments in the Arctic Ocean off its northern coast - drilling that could threaten pristine wildlife habitats.

Large-scale production could begin in the next two decades, if the price of oil rises high enough.
Preliminary exploration has already begun, including in the Laptev Sea.
But scientists say the region is home to important, thriving populations of walrus and polar bears, which could be put at risk.

 

The early retreat of ice makes life harder for the polar bear and walrus

Biologists on the 2013 Laptev Expedition this summer have been trying to establish if the walruses and polar bears there are a unique group, in need of special protection. BBC journalists went with them to investigate the issue.
We flew to Khatanga, one of the most northerly towns in Siberia, and there we boarded a small boat, the Taimyr.
From Khatanga it was a two-day, 500km (310-mile) journey almost due north.
Polar bears After the first day it became clear we had entered the domain of the polar bear. First we saw a mother with two five-month-old cubs on Maliy Begichev Island.
Then we saw a big "haul-out" of walrus at Cape Tsvetkov - perhaps 400-600 there, resting on the beach. Towering above them on the last large lump of ice was a large polar bear.
But our destination was Maria Pronchishcheva Bay, half-way up the Taimyr Peninsula. It is the most northerly bit of land in the world still attached to a continent.
"The oil companies are coming here with exploration projects already, and there are ongoing seismic explorations," said Igor Chestin, chief executive of the environmental group WWF Russia.
"So before the real oil and gas projects develop in the area we need to know that there is sufficient knowledge of the conservation needs here, which would allow us to put in the necessary protection if this development ever happens."
From satellite photographs taken a week earlier, the scientists on the expedition knew there had also been a large walrus "haul-out" there previously. By the time we sailed into the bay the number had dropped to around 60. But it was still enough for the crucial scientific work of the expedition - collecting DNA from the Laptev walrus.

 

Researchers want to find out more about the Laptev walrus

Collecting samples Walrus expert Anatoly Kochnev of ChukotTINRO, a marine biology group, was despatched to the pebbly spit where the animals were resting.
We watched as he fired crossbow darts into the sides of the walrus, which he then retrieved with a thin piece of line attached to each dart. At the head of each dart was a biopsy punch, which pulled out a piece of walrus skin and fat as it was retrieved.
The samples will be sent to labs in Moscow and Denmark for DNA analysis. The plan is to end a long scientific dispute over whether the Laptev walrus is a unique sub-species in need of special protection, genetically different from the Pacific walrus and the Atlantic walrus.

 

 

Darts are used to collect vital samples from the walrus

Just one hour after Anatoly Kochnev's third trip out to the spit, a huge male polar bear appeared in the exact spot where he had been kneeling to fire the crossbow. The bear tried to kill one of the walrus, but was unsuccessful - this time.
Polar bear expert Geoff York of WWF's Global Arctic Programme is collecting samples - faeces and hair - which will also be sent for DNA analysis. Again there is a concern that the polar bears of the Laptev Sea may be unique and in need of special protection.
"If that is true then in most countries you would need to identify the habitat being used by bears," Geoff York said.
"Are they making dens onshore? How are they using the land in summer? Then you would protect those habitats at least in the relevant seasons. If you do indeed have two unique sub-populations of marine mammals here you might consider that this should be a Marine Protected Area, and you might exclude any industrial development."

 
Ice retreating
The concern about the large marine mammals of the Laptev Sea has increased in the last decade for two reasons.
Firstly, climate change has led to a dramatic shrinking of the Arctic ice cap in recent summers. This has meant that in order to stay close to their feeding grounds the walruses have had to come ashore in much larger numbers, instead of staying on the ice where they feel more comfortable.
Polar bears are also being forced ashore, where they find it much harder to feed. Their preferred meal, the ringed seal, is not available onshore and they often are reduced to going after the much more dangerous walrus.
Secondly, there are plans to develop the Laptev Sea for oil and gas production. The water here is shallow, which makes it easier to drill, and there are believed to be large deposits of hydrocarbons. This exploration work may frighten the nervous bear and walruses, and could disrupt their food supply.
Conservationists think the arrival of much greater numbers of humans could also increase hunting, further disrupting the delicate balance of nature here. They say that nobody has yet worked out how to control an oil spill in seas that are close to freezing.

The Laptev Sea is now a target for large-scale energy exploration

The Russian government says the country's future wealth depends on exploiting the deposits here and in other parts of the Arctic. The deposits will not be easy to extract, but they are almost certainly there.
"Most of the estimates give more than 20% of global undiscovered oil deposits to Russian Arctic seas," said Alexev Piskarev, author of Energy Potential of the Russian Arctic Seas.
Shipping route The melting sea ice has also opened up new shipping routes. Russia is now advertising the Northern Sea Route, which cuts the journey time from China to Europe by up to two weeks.
"You save time and you save fuel. It is much more economical," said Alexander Olshevsky, head of the Northern Sea Route Administration. "Though you will need to pay for a nuclear-powered icebreaker, and of course you will need a boat that can deal with these conditions."
But again, opening up the Northern Sea Route could disrupt the fragile ecosystem. More than 400 ships will make the journey this year - yet in 2010 it was only four.
On our brief, two-week trip we have seen extraordinary fire-red Arctic skies, gleaming snowy owls and grumpy musk ox, and an almost untouched landscape of thin yellow tundra covering the permafrost. The temperature has barely risen above 10C and has often been closer to freezing.
It is one of the last wildernesses of the world, a place few people even know exists, but modern industry is already starting to encroach on it.
(BBC Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford went on the 2013 Laptev Expedition with BBC cameraman Anton Chicherov and producer Emma Wells.)

Syria crisis: UN inspectors' convoy 'hit by sniper fire'

The BBC's Yolande Knell: "The UN has always said the safety of its team is paramount"

• Peace chance?
• Tent city
• Claims assessed
• In pictures

Unidentified snipers have opened fire on a convoy of UN experts investigating suspected chemical weapons attacks in Syria's capital, the UN has said.

One car was shot at "multiple times", forcing the convoy to turn back. The UN promised to continue with the inquiry as soon as it could replace the car.
Syrian state media blamed opposition "terrorists" for the attack, though the claim could not be verified.
Hundreds died in suspected chemical attacks on Wednesday near Damascus.
The US said there was little doubt Syrian forces used chemical weapons in the attacks, which reportedly killed more than 300 people in rebel-held areas.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad dismissed the accusation as "an insult to common sense" and warned the US against military intervention.
"If someone is dreaming of making Syria a puppet of the West, then this will not happen," he told the Russian newspaper Izvestiya.
Intimidation

The 20-member UN inspection team has been in Syria since 18 August to look into three earlier suspected chemical attacks.
The experts intend to take soil, blood, urine and tissue samples for laboratory testing from five locations on Monday and Tuesday.
They were unlikely to play any role in apportioning blame for the attack.
But shortly after setting out from the hotel, the cars came under fire "multiple times by unidentified snipers", according to a statement from the UN.
"The team returned safely back to the government checkpoint. The team will return to the area after replacing the vehicle," said the UN.
The UN Secretary General's spokesman, Farhan Haq, told the BBC the convoy was "deliberately targeted" but those behind the shooting remain "unidentified at this stage".
He said that it seemed someone was trying to intimidate the team.
Military action A year ago, US President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government would be "a red line" that could trigger US military action.
Washington has recently bolstered its naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean, and military leaders from the US, UK and their allies are meeting in Jordan.
But the UN Security Council remains divided, with China and Russia appearing unlikely to drop their objection to stricter sanctions on Mr Assad's government.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that diplomats should be cautious in dealing with the chemical weapons issue, and Moscow warned Western nations not to prejudge the outcome of the inspections.
Western politicians have begun to suggest taking action outside of the UN system.
UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that action could be taken without UN approval if there was "great humanitarian need" in Syria.

Hans Blix: "It's important that [the inspectors] can go to any place they want to see"

His French counterpart Laurent Fabius suggested the UN Security Council could be bypassed "in certain circumstances".
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the Milliyet newspaper that more than 30 countries were already discussing how to act on Syria if the UN failed to agree.
He promised that Turkey would join any coalition against Mr Assad's government, with or without UN backing.
'Neurotoxic symptoms' Western officials were unimpressed with Syria's decision to allow in the UN experts.
Mr Hague said evidence could have been tampered with, degraded or destroyed in the five days since the attack.
A senior White House official, quoted by AP news agency, dismissed the visit as "too late to be credible".
Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said on Saturday that three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 died.
While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems.
Syria's security forces are widely believed to possess large undeclared stockpiles of mustard gas and sarin nerve agent.
It is one of seven countries that have not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons.

• 01:15: 21 August (10:15 GMT 20 Aug): Facebook pages of Syrian opposition report heavy fighting in rebel-held eastern districts of the Ghouta, the agricultural belt around Damascus
• 02:45: Opposition posts Facebook report of "chemical shelling" in Ein Tarma area of the Ghouta
• 02:47: Second opposition report says chemical weapons used in Zamalka area of the Ghouta
• Unverified video footage shows people being treated on pavements in the dark and in a makeshift hospital
• Reports say chemical weapons were used in Ghouta towns of Irbin, Jobar, Zamalka and Ein Tarma as well as in Muadhamiya to the west, but this is not confirmed
• Syrian government acknowledges military offensive in the Ghouta but denies chemical weapons use

Warning Over £100,000 Charity Executive Wages

There are fears six figure salaries for staff at 30 UK charities could discourage people from continuing to make donations.

Six figure salaries for staff at Britain's taxpayer-funded foreign aid charities risk bringing the industry into disrepute, the Charity Commission's chairman William Shawcross has warned.

Some 30 people working at the 14 leading UK charities that make up the 50-year old Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) are paid more than £100,000 a year, according to new figures.
A Daily Telegraph investigation into charity industry salaries showed British Red Cross CEO Sir Nick Young earns £184,000 a year.
James Forsyth, chief executive of Save the Children, earns £163,000, while the charity's chief operating officer Anabel Hoult earns £168,653.

William Shawcross says some salaries will not seem fair to donors

Mr Shawcross told the Daily Telegraph: "It is not for the commission to tell charities how much they should pay their executives. That is a matter for their trustees.
"However, in these difficult times, when many charities are experiencing shortfalls, trustees should consider whether very high salaries are really appropriate, and fair to both the donors and the taxpayers who fund charities.
"Disproportionate salaries risk bringing organisations and the wider charitable world into disrepute."
Three years ago, 19 staff members at the DEC charities, which are mandated to raise funds quickly for crisis-struck parts of the world, earned more than £100,000.
DEC says it has run 62 appeals and raised more than £1.1bn since launching in 1963.
The charities involved with DEC include Action Aid, Age International, British Red Cross, CAFOD, Care International, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Plan UK, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.
Sir Stephen Bubb, chief executive of charity leaders organisation Acevo, said the intervention by Mr Shawcross was "deeply unhelpful".
The average salary for a charity chief executive was £58,000, he said and added: "The big national and international charities are very demanding jobs and we need to attract the best talent to those jobs and that's what we do."
Sir Stephen denied that the high salaries could put off donors.
He said: "This simply isn't an issue for donors. Donors are more concerned about the outcomes, the performance and the efficiency of these organisations.
"To keep talent, really strong people, at the top of these organisations they need to be paid properly. These are still not excessive salaries when you compare them to the public and private sectors."

'Bad Bank' Pays Back £1.9bn To Taxpayers

The Government recoups more cash after the nationalisations of Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley during the financial crisis.

The so-called 'bad bank' behind failed lenders Northern Rock and Bradford & Bingley paid another £1.9bn to taxpayers in the first half of the year and saw a sharp fall in soured loans.

UK Asset Resolution (UKAR), the state-owned firm responsible for winding down the mortgage books of the collapsed banks, said Government repayments surged more than 70% from £788m a year earlier.
Its underlying pre-tax profits increased 10% to £529m as the improving economy and housing market saw the number of borrowers in severe arrears drop 29%.
Repossessions fell more than 8% to 3,871 and charges for bad debts dived.
Chief executive Richard Banks said: "All that suggests that the economy is starting to improve and people's finances are starting to improve."
Britain's housing market has been stimulated in recent months by Government schemes that have boosted mortgage approvals and lifted prices.
In a separate report today, the lender Halifax said house prices increased at their fastest pace in almost three years in July - rising 4.6% on an annual basis, 0.9% month-on-month.
It pointed to increased market activity as the economy improved amid the assistance measures for buyers.
The Help to Buy initiative allows people to get on to the housing ladder with a 5% deposit, while Funding for Lending encourages banks and building societies to lend more to households and businesses.
Mr Banks added: "There are definite signs of a moderate recovery and the mortgage market has been stimulated through the Help to Buy scheme.
"I think it will be a continued steady reduction in the number of customers in arrears," he said.
UKAR has now repaid a total £6.6bn to the Government, but still owes another £42.1bn.
It expects to fully repay the state within the next 10 years - which would be 13 years after the company was formed to manage the loan books of B&B and Northern Rock after the former building societies failed during the financial crisis.
It is winding down a £66.1bn total loan book and has 584,000 customers, of whom around a third are on interest-only mortgages.

Dreamliner Grounding 'Cost Carrier ANA £53m'

As All Nippon Air hits turbulence because of rising fuel prices, it reveals the grounding of its Boeing 787 fleet cost it £53m.

 

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) has said the grounding of its Boeing Dreamliner fleet has cost it 8bn yen (£53m).

The announcement comes after the carrier made a second-quarter loss of 6.6bn yen (£44m).
It reversed a small year-earlier profit, despite a 4.4% rise in revenue to 358.3bn yen (£2.38bn).
"The primary reason for the increase in operating expenses was a rise in fuel costs due to the weakening of the yen," it said in a statement.
"Operating revenues were also held back by the suspension of Boeing 787 services for part of the period."

In early January a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane caught fire in Boston

ANA and domestic rival Japan Airlines, which reports its quarterly results Wednesday, were sideswiped by the grounding of Boeing's new aircraft that began in January.
After a long-running probe the planes were allowed to fly again in June.
The carriers at the time operated about half the Dreamliners in service and had to cancel hundreds of flights in the wake of the crisis, which was caused by problems with the plane's lithium battery.
The carrier and Japan Airlines have said they will seek compensation from Boeing having lost a combined total of more than 22.5bn yen (£149m) in revenue.

The fire at Heathrow was suspected to have been caused by a beacon battery

"The impact of the problems was bigger than originally expected," Kei Yamamura, an aviation analyst with SMBC Friend Securities, said.
"But this factor will fade toward the end of the fiscal year as long as these issues don't come up again."
Although issues related to the auxiliary power supply lithium battery appear to have been resolved, emergency locator transmitters (ELT) used by Boeing now appear to be under scrutiny.
A fuselage fire on an Ethiopian Airways 787 at Heathrow airport on July 12 was pinpointed to the ELT manufactured by Honeywell.
The US Federal Aviation Administration advised on the emergency beacon wiring being checked.
Boeing has subsequently told airlines up to 1,200 aircraft across a range of models have the ELTs fitted.